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Google Analytics “SEO Report” – an absolutely essential report

Who’d like a report which shows you the Google searches which are sending you the most visits, how many times that search was made, and roughly where you ranked for that search? Something like the report below? You would? Right, let’s do it.

The report in question is a fairly new one in Google Analytics, called the “SEO Report”, which I suspect relatively few people have found. Yes, that’s right, you’ll need to be running Google Analytics to do this (although if our sixty or so clients are anything to go by, that’s about 90% of you).

You will also need to have Google Webmaster Tools set up and installed (if you have, jump to the next paragraph). I’m always amazed how many companies have gone to the effort of setting up Google Analytics but not Google Webmaster Tools. If you’re not sure, sign in to your Google Analytics account, then visit Webmaster Tools. If nothing appears, it could still be installed, but perhaps someone else set it up and you haven’t been given access. One way or another, get it sorted out and running. (By the way, if you’re paying someone to “do your SEO” and Webmaster Tools isn’t running, ask them how on earth they’re managing to do their job properly, because it’s a sure sign they’re probably not).

Assuming Google Webmaster Tools is running, it needs to be connected to your Google Analytics account. To see if it is, let’s go straight to the report this article is about, which you’ll find under Acquisition > Search Engine Optimisation > Queries. You’ll either get the report above, or this message (which means you have a little more setting up to do):

And that’s it! There’s some background information from Google on how to use the reports here. Once you’ve set up a report you find useful, don’t forget to add it to those emailed to you automatically each week or month. Since the demise of the keyword information being provided in your Google Analytics reports, the “SEO Report” has become quite critical for anyone taking search engine optimisation seriously. You need this report, and you need it today.